Saturday, May 12, 2007

"The government will make use of these powers only insofar as they are essential for carrying out vitally necessary measures...The number of cases in which an internal necessity exists for having recourse to such a law is in itself a limited one."

Adolf Hitler . March 23rd 1933 proposing the Ermächtigungsgesetz (Enabling Act)..or more formally Gesetz zur Behebung der Not von Volk und Reich ("Law to Remedy the Distress of the People and the Nation").

The home affairs and interior ministers of the G6 - the six largest EU nations - are meeting this weekend on the serene and beautiful island of San Clemente, Venice (pic) - US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and EU security chief Franco Frattini are also enjoying the italian sunshine.

Dottore John Reid the Home Secretary of the new slimmed down Home Office (I'll have that without Justice) is there - and he should fucking well stay there.

He gave a speech in which he called for human rights laws to be rewritten to "protect people against terrorism."

The current situation was "unacceptable", he said because politicians failed to protect citizens by following case law "to the letter" - which is what most legal johnnies not on the Government's payroll understand by the precept amd practice of legal precedents.

This Titan of Jurisprudence demanded of his illustrious colleagues that the international legal system needed "modernising", the distinction between armed conflict and criminal acts was he screamed, out of date... presumably meaning ... for example ... that the illegal and criminal invasion of Iraq ought not not to be tramelled by International agreements, solemnly signed and sealed in peace and without duress... and that any leaders who undertook such acts were ... well .. inoccent.

"We need to work to modernise the law - still protecting human rights and still providing equity and justice - but reflecting the reality of the conflicts and struggles we now face."

The right to security, to the protection of life and liberty, is and should be the basic right on which all others are based he read out.

"We need leadership to do this. It can't be left solely to the lawyers."

Well fuck me, we cannot leave law to the lawyers he said - presumably styling himself on the ageing Clemenceau who famously stated that ,"war was too important to be left to the generals .... " He also said when opening the Paris Peace Conference (he was then 77) , "We shall insist on the imposition of penalties on the authors of the abominable crimes committed during the war." .. and so laid the seeds of Weimar Germany and the rise of Hitler and German nationalism.>

"Politicians must expose these issues and set a lead, so that we can protect the rights of all our citizens, including all those threatened by terrorism."

The freedom loving sould told his colleagues that Human rights laws have caused problems for the British government in its attempts to introduce anti-terrorism measures.These include emergency laws in 2001 which were defeated in the House of Lords (How dare they ?) , and courts overturning control orders which restrict the movements of terror suspects... (How dare they ?)

100,000 to 300,000 barrels a day of Iraq’s declared oil production over the past 4 years can't be accounted for ... it could have been siphoned off through corruption or smuggling, according to a draft US government report.

At an average of US$50 a barrel, the report values the theft apparent discrepancy @ US $5 - 15 Mn. every day.

C. Ford Runge is Distinguished McKnight University Professor of Applied Economics and Law and Director of the Center for International Food and Agricultural Policy at the University of Minnesota. Benjamin Senauer is Professor of Applied Economics and Co-director of the Food Industry Center at the University of Minnesota. If you read nothing else about ethanol - read this.

The authors demonstrate how Washington's fixation on corn-based ethanol has distorted the national agenda and diverted its attention from developing a broad and balanced strategy to energy independence.

Because of current high oil prices and hefty production subsidies, corn-based ethanol is promoted as a major step in increasing national energy independence in the US. Reliance on high input corn crops drives up prices (corn peaked Feb US$4.37 a bushel, trading today US$3.90 dropped 4% in last 4 weeks) and pushes up grain prices worldwide - the price of grain fed protein sources, poultry, pigs and beef is shooting up as well as secondary markets such as milk and eggs. A bad, cold, wet spring has delayed planting and with 40 million acres of corn to plant in the weeks ahead reduced yields could push prices up further gain later in the year.

Filling the 25-gallon tank of an SUV in the US with pure ethanol would require over 450 pounds of corn -- which contains enough calories to feed one person for a year. It requires a US$13 Federal subsidy to the ethanol refiner, protected by a 51 cents a gallon tariff barrier - if the entire corn crop in the United States were used to make ethanol, that fuel would replace only 12 % of current U.S. gasoline use.

Direct subsidies to corn growers of the mid-west were $8.9 billion in 2005 - which will fall as producer prices soar.

2.1 billion bushels of corn grown 78 million acres produced ethanol at 106 plants nationwide this is expected to grow to 3.5 billion bushels ( U.S. Department of Agriculture showed 15 percent more corn planted than 2006, some 90.4 million acres) this year as corn output jumps to benefit from the US$4 a bushel price ( US$2 only 2 years ago). Farmland devoted to other crops is also being diverted. Cotton acreage this year in the US will drop 14 % on 2006, according to the National Cotton Council. Soybeans, wheat, barley, oats and alfalfa are also being displaced.

The biofuel industry has long been dominated not by market forces but by politics and the interests of a few large companies. In the United States, at least, corn and soybeans have been used as primary inputs for many years thanks in large part to the lobbying efforts of corn and soybean growers and Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM), currently the biggest ethanol producer in the U.S. market.

ADM started making ethanol and other products resulting from the wet-milling of corn in the 1970's , such as high fructose corn syrup and grew to be a major player in the feed market and key force in driving ethanol use. By 1980, ADM's ethanol production had reached 175 million gallons per year, and resultant high fructose corn syrups had become a ubiquitous sweetening agent (and alternative to much criticised raw sugars) in processed foods. ByIn 2006, made just over 1 Bn gallons of ethanol and was the major US producer 4 times the size of , VeraSun Energy (as corn cost rose Vera Sun posted a loss after in Q1 2007). Last year they planned to increase investment in ethanol from $700 million to $1.2 billion in 2008 and increase production by 50%, or close to 500 million gallons, by 2009.

Legislators such as Vice President Hubert Humphrey the Minnesota senator promoted special subsidies , as did Bob Dole (R-Kans.) - critics have pointed out that nearly half of ADM's profits have come from products that the U.S. government has subsidized or protected.

Now protection has gone down the food chain and the 51 cents a gallon subsidy is augmented by a further 10 centsa gallon tax reduction on the first 15 million gallons produced. Many states (Indiana is notable) also provide all sorts of tax breaks on new built plants.

The poor are faced not only with higher energy costs but a resultant rise in food costs - none more dramatically recently than in Mexico earlier this year who import 80% of their corn from the US .Late 2006, the price of tortilla flour doubled . mexican tortillas are made of home grown white corn and the price rose as feed producers swapped supplies from US$4 a bushel corn to cheaper white corn - speculation and hoarding pushed prices even higher.

With about half of Mexico's 107 million people living in poverty and relying on tortillas as a main source of calories, the public outcry was fierce with food riots erupting. In January this year , Mexico's new president, Felipe Calderón, was forced to cap the prices of corn products.

Mark Rosegrant, a director of The International Food Policy Research Institute, in Washington, D.C., projects that given continued high oil prices, the rapid increase in global biofuel production will push global corn prices up by 20 percent by 2010 and 41 percent by 2020. The IFPR calculate that ...

The price of oilseeds, (soybeans, rapeseeds,sunflower )to rise 26% by 2010 and 76% by 2020Wheat prices by 11 % by 2010 and 30 % by 2020 (which probably undersestimates Australian and Indian drougths this year and rising demand in Egypt)

In the poorest parts of sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and Latin America, where cassava is a staple (and is being tested as an ethanol crop) , its price is expected to increase by 33 percent by 2010 and 135 percent by 2020.

The United Nations Millennium Development Goals of 2000 to halve the world's chronically underfed population from 16% in 1990 to 8% in 2015 will never be met as biofuels use supplant food use and world hunger grows. There is only one result when you spend 50-80% of household income on food and the staple crops double in price.

Of course the drive for food based fuels rests on a hidden but unwelcome truth - ethanol is neither fuel efficient nor environmentally friendly - Argonne National Laboratory and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory have calculated that the net energy ratio of gasoline is 0.81, a result that implies an input larger than the output. Corn-based ethanol has a ratio that ranges between 1.25 and 1.35, which is better than breaking even. Petroleum diesel has an energy ratio of 0.83, compared with that of biodiesel made from soybean oil, which ranges from 1.93 to 3.21. (Biodiesel produced from other fats and oils, such as restaurant grease, may be more energy efficient.)

Comaring biofuels gasoline such as greenhouse gas emissions shows that the complete cycle of the production and use of corn-based ethanol releases less greenhouse gases than does that of gasoline, but only by 12 to 26 %. The production and use of biodiesel emits 41 to 78 percent less such gases than do the production and use of petroleum-based diesel fuels.

Even worse is relative fuel efficiency. Using gasoline blends with 10 percent corn-based ethanol instead of pure gasoline lowers emissions by 2 percent. If the blend is 85 percent ethanol (which only flexible-fuel vehicles can run on), greenhouse gas emissions fall further: by 23 percent if the ethanol is corn-based and by 64 percent if it is cellulose-based. Likewise, diesel containing 2 percent biodiesel emits 1.6 percent less greenhouse gases than does petroleum diesel, whereas blends with 20 percent biodiesel emit 16 percent less, and pure biodiesel (also for use only in special vehicles) emits 78 percent less. On the other hand, biodiesel can increase emissions of nitrogen oxide, which contributes to air pollution. In short, the "green" virtues of ethanol and biodiesel are modest when these fuels are made from corn and soybeans, which are energy-intensive, highly polluting row crops.

Ethanol made entirely from cellulose fibre from wood by product, special grasses, field crop residues has an energy ratio between 5 and 6 and emits 82 to 85 percent less greenhouse gases than does gasoline. As corn grows scarcer and more expensive, enzyme technology is improving (To learn more search through this site for Novozymes) and novel closed cycle gasification technologies offfer a promising source of biofuel in the future but significant industrial scale production is at least a decade away. Key technologies are currently not owned by US companies.

Some of the problems are simply logistical one calculation shows that fueling an ethanol plant with switchgrass, a much-discussed alternative, would require delivering a semitrailer truckload of the grass every six minutes, 24 hours a day.... every day.

If you want to drive ... someone somewhere will starve.

Two billion people suffer from hunger daily. The struggle against hunger is made harder as agrifuels for the rich supplant food crops for the hungry. Hunger is a universal scourge - the rapid transformation of agriculture to feed the apparently insatiable and irrational demand for fuels will drive food prices, impact on water resource, adding even more pressures to the overpopulated and underfed.

The French nuclear powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle (R 91) arrived in the North Arabian Sea on March 16 and since then the two nuclear-powered aircraft carriers have been operating together in support of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). French Super-Etendards, Rafales and an E-2C Hawkeye conducted touch-and-go landings on board Stennis and there were daily staff exchanges.

Both ships are providing support to the International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF) on the ground in Afghanistan as well as conducting bilateral exercises at sea and personnel exchanges between the strike group ships until the french carrier completed operations on April 16th. USS Nimitz (CVN 68) and embarked Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 11 began conducting missions in support of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) from yesterday May 11.

Since arriving in the area on Feb. 19 during the past four months while at sea, John C. Stennis ship’s personnel have consumed 18,962 gallons of milk, 434,760 eggs, 17,040 pounds of flour, 18,599 pounds of ground beef, 36,155 pounds of chicken and 159,960 cups of cereal.

Those anxious for sight and sound of Madame Jeane Palfrey's court appointed , budget priced, criminal attorney, Preston Burtonn will have to wait until May 21st when he is due to address the judge at the next hearing in the case.

Meanwhile U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler placed a temporary restraining order on Palfrey and her civil attorneyy, Montgomery Blair Sibley, prohibiting them from sharing additional phone records with news organizations or the public.

Montgomery Blair Sibley tells Lord Patel that he wrote to the Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales on Sunday demanding that he conduct a special investigation into what Sibley described as an unfair prosecution of Palfrey's business. Sibley said that he would release Palfrey's phone records for all to peruse -- including Internet bloggers -- if Gonzales did not take action.WMR has more on ABC controlled media (WMAL) choking the news on the telephone bills and what they reveal.

If you consider kerb crawling *** in Middlesbrough,**** Peterborough, Southampton, London, Bristol, Bournemouth or Leeds in the next 6 weeks - think again.

Vernon Coaker at the Home Office is on your case .." Local communities are fed up with street prostitution" , so a poster campaign supported with radio spots has started this week to remind offenders that conviction could cost them their job,** their driving licence and a £1,000 fine and unwelcome correspondence at their home address.

They are also providing an income for drug addicts and thereby supporting the local drug trade and are resevoirs for sexually transmitted infections.

A research study of 127 male kerb crawlers published in 2004 showed that ages of clients ranged from 17-80 ( median age of 35), almost half were married, two thirds were in full-time employment, and three-quarters had no previous criminal convictions. Although no data is available, anecdotal observation suggests that the home address of the offender is distant to the site of the offence.

Costs of the campaign to the tax payer and the Home Office, have not been revealed, nor any methodology of how effective the campaign is in terms of reducing the nuisance to local residents or in cracking down on offenders. Toni Fabuloso suspects that the evidence after the recent murders in Ipswich is that the ladies are a highly mobile workforce and will simply move on ... as will their more highly mobile customers... "Admitting he had travelled 20 miles from Trawden to trawl Bank Top for sex, the man promised he would never do it again."

** Can an employer sack you for having been convicted of kerb crawling - or soliciting ? A Solicitor writes... No....unless you manage Tottenham Hotspur or are a goalkeeper or Jaguar test driver or were Director of Public Prosecutions or a doctor in Darlington or a minister in the United Reformed Church in Middlesbrough.****

*** Chambers - kerb-crawlerNoun. Someone who indulges in kerb-crawling, the practice of driving slowly alongside the kerb in order to lure potential sexual partners into the car.

Friday, May 11, 2007

German observers feel that the 40 or more police raids in Berlin, Hamburg and elsewhere in Germany on Wednesday were aimed at intimidating protesters ahead of the G-8 summit with some commentators claiming that the operation was far too heavy-handed. (Pic the poster says Stop the G8)

German Police raided known leftist organizations across Germany in what was said to be a move to round up activists who are are accused of plotting terror attacks ahead of the G-8 summit in June in Heiligendamm on Germany's Baltic coast.

The raids in Berlin and Hamburg were said to be aimed at preventing violence by anti-globalization activists , presumably to head off displays seen at Genoa in 2001 or Saint Petersburg last year.

The inevitable result was that many thousands protested in the streets on Wednesday and threw bottles and fireworks at police in Hamburg where the high profile left-wing center "Rote Flora," was raided and police confiscated computers and files.

Die Welt said this would be represented by the left as deliberate provocation and demonstrated the need for self defense against a 'totalitarian state.' Although there have been minor events in the area including the burning of a car in front of the home of Thomas Mirow the deputy finance minister nobody has been arrested or charged.

Die Tageszeitung said that it was unclear whether the police had any legal basis for such searches - they doubt whether Paragraph 129a of the criminal code which deals with the training and support of a terrorist organization -- could be applied in this instance at all. The Federal Prosecutor's Office got what they wanted however, which was to demonstrate that they would crack down not only on people planning to disturb or prevent the forthcoming world economic summit using arson attacks and other violent means would be nipped in the bud.

Coming swiftly after the release and non-release of Red Army faction prisoners and the agitators and says the Süddeutsche Zeitung, " Police and law enforcement authorities are using it as an excuse for wide-ranging investigations and fishing expeditions."

Platts, the leading oil market service reports that OPEC average production was 26.57 million barrels of crude oil per day in April, which is 770,000 b/d above their 25.8 million b/d production target.

This is a tiny increase overall of 30,000 barrels per day (b/d) from March's 26.54 million b/d - remember OPEC supply a bit more than a third of the world's needs which are said to be 85.5 million bpd - ish.Nigerian outages due to political unrest has risen to 815,000 (bpd) in early May.

John Kingston, Platts global director of oil and leading industry commentator is quoted " .... these numbers have to be viewed as worrisome for consumers," "Although the International Energy Agency (IEA) projects that OPEC only needs to supply the market with 29.3 million b/d in the second quarter to keep inventories balanced, from a full-year perspective it must supply about 30.4 million b/d," he explained, with the heaviest supply needs coming in the third and fourth quarters respectively, of 30.5 million b/d and more than 31 million p/d.

"So OPEC has to add a significant amount of supply in the market, just to keep inventories from declining further later this year," Kingston said. "And those estimates don't include any extra surge of OPEC oil that would be needed should the US Gulf of Mexico get hit by a significant hurricane in the coming months."

OPEC decided to maintain current supplies at a meeting in March and is not expected to meet next in September to discuss and chart future roduction production policy.

The Paris based International Energy Agency have again called today (in their Monthly Oil Market Report) for OPEC to increase output for the third month running.

“We see a big, 1.6 million barrel a day crank up in global demand in June and there are still constraints in the refining side,” said Lawrence Eagles, head of the IEA's Oil Industry and Markets Division.

The IEA reports that fuel inventories in the industrialized countries, which are members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, have shrunk by an “unusually high” 900,000 barrels per day (bpd) during the past six months. Gasoline inventories in the United States (affected by low refinery utilisation by shutdowns and maintenance and probably a bit of market rigging) have sunk to a 16-year low for the time of year, pushing pump prices above $3 nationwide to record levels.

The national average price of a gallon (3.7 liters) of regular gas reached 3.035 USD this week according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. a few cents below the record prices set after the 2005 hurricanes.

No new refineries have been built in the U.S. in more than 30 years, mainly because environmental rules governing emissions have rendered the costs prohibitive, and because community and environmental activists fiercely oppose designating new sites for facilities - they are also suffering a squeeze on labour with an ageing workforce.

D.J. Peterson and Sergej Mahnovski did an in -depth analysis of the U.S. oil refining industry, which was published as a report by the RAND Corporation on August 28, 2003 "New Forces at Work in Refining" (ISBN: 0-8330-3436-7) which was ignored by the political leaders.

Lord Patel has nagged people to read the report - here is a remarkably prophetic piece from the Rand Press Release at the time ...

The industry shakeout has left just 58 companies operating refineries, a dramatic consolidation from the 189 refining firms 22 years ago. The remaining plants now operate at 92 percent of their capacity, up from 78 percent in 1985.

The decline in unused manufacturing capacity and other efficiencies allowed the industry in 2001 to report the highest profit margins seen by the Energy Information Administration since it started collecting the information in 1979.

The reduction of spare capacity has helped drive up prices at the pump and leaves the market vulnerable to shortages caused by a plant breakdown or other unpredictable events. Industry leaders appear to have accepted the situation, seeing no economic logic in straining for more capacity.

"I think the industry has learned that it's okay to fall short on product," said an industry observer. "There is no reward being long on product or production capacity."

Added another: "Every investment a refiner makes is stranded in his eyes…you win by doing nothing."

The air has been thick with hagiographers telling us of his legacy. Not a single commentator has mentioned the gaping hole he leaves in the energy security of the nation.

Indigenous oil and gas reserves (- Compared with 2005, Total indigenous UK production of crude oil and NGLs in 2006 decreased by 76.6 mn tonnes = 9.6 %. - Total indigenous UK production of natural gas in 2006 declined by 8.6 % over 2005.) fast dwindling, negligible coal resource available (Annual coal production for 2006 was 18.6 Mn tonnes, 9.3 % down on production in 2005- Imports of coal in 2006 were record level of 50.3 Mn tones , 14.3 per cent up on 2005,) a half cock "sustainable" energy resource which consists of a few wind farms that farm subsidies rather than the wind... and a reliance on imported (and expensive) gas from Russia. Algeria ... in competition with the US where domestic gas costs the consumer double the price paid in the UK.

The only serious off shore wave energy project is being installed in Portugal through lack of foresight, effort and money in Whitehall.

Now, because Blair despised and ignored the Parliamentary process, any attempt to build nuclear power stations is stalled moving any possible benefit many more years away - made even more difficult by the intense Scottish resistance to building any new power stations North of the Border. (Which since this was first written, is increasingly unlikely as the Greens have formed an Alliance with the SNP on a stated basis of resisting the building of more nuclear power stations)

Even the LNG pipelines from Milford Haven, (after steamrollering the dockside facilities regardless of maritime safety) are held up by an attempt to railroad planning permission through rural councils.

The sole benefit in Blair's 10 years for the UK energy policy is that the neo-con re-writing of the Middle East map which he has supported by lies, deceit and against all opposition has pushed oil up to US$70 a barrel, without which Mr Brown would have had some serious problems in balancing his books.

We are all now members of the Forth Coming UK Energy Deficit. FCUKED.

The Department of Trade and Industrypublished the Energy Trends and Quarterly Energy Prices March 30th 2007 : Full details posted here "Fiddling whilst the lights go out

TOTAL ENERGY: 2006

- Total production in 2006 was 196.4 million tonnes of oil equivalent, 8.8 % lower than 2005.- Between 2005 and 2006 coal and other solid fuel consumption rose by 11.0 %- Oil consumption increased by 1.1 %- Gas consumption fell by 5.5 %.- Primary electricity consumption decreased by 6.5 %.

Whilst energy conservation has been a success - and litle remarked, it reflects the staggering costs increases a reduction in industrial use and the consequent irreversible trend in declining industrial output and remarkably mild winter weather compared with the rest of Europe and Scandinavia.

Thursday, May 10, 2007

There is considerable fuss and disquiet in Kabul diplomatic circles as drug smuggling hots up. That's smuggling drugs INTO Afghanistan.

Apparently the labrynthine systems and bureaucratic delays have made the import of generic antibiotics, and basic drugs, so time consuming, there is now a healthy trade in branded drugs - which it is suspected can often arrive as diplomatic supplies.

It is not entirely unlikely either, that drugs are leaking out of military medical establishments as the super rich elites can readily afford supplies.

The Examiner ran a fascinating story about the exotic homes in McLean area in Fairfax County (one of the richest parts of Fairfax County, which is one of the richest counties in the United States.) in November last year, by Adam Seigal, who lives in McLean but he says, is neither rich nor famous,. It includes a welter of detail about homes in the area ..

Fairfax County is not fairly applying real estate assessment rules says Seigal, when it comes to luxury homeowners. Non-luxury homes seem to be assessed far closer to actual sales prices, while tax assessments for many of the county’s high-end homes are far lower than the required “100 percent of the estimated fair market value.”

"For example, on Jan. 12, 2000, Vice President Richard B. Cheney bought a property for $1.35 million on Chain Bridge Road, one of the top-end streets in McLean . The 2006 assessment is $1.045 million — or less than 80 percent of what the Cheneys paid for the home."

Nearby he brings up the details of one of the Bush family's firmest friends and was US Secretary of Defense 1987/89 - to be followed by his near neighbour Dick Cheney, he is associated with the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) ....

For example , Carlyle Group chairman (1992-2003) Frank Carlucci’s(77) home on Crest Lane is assessed at $340,080 — less than $14,000 higher than it was assessed in 2000 during a period in which the community saw a 10 to 20 percent annual growth in real estate prices.

One might have expected the value of Carlucci’s five-bedroom, 6.5-bath, three-fireplace home to have easily doubled rather than falling behind the general inflation rate. This 2,292-square-foot property also has a tennis court, pool and garage."

Seigal contrasts this with his own four-bedroom, three-bath, 1,695-square-foot home is assessed at $351,780 which is he says is a lovely home but has no tennis court, pool or garage.

Seigal quotes several similar under-assessments...the homes of former Secretary of State Colin Powell (whose appraised value is roughly 50 percent of comparable sales prices in the neighborhood), and Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia.He also reports that , former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski and world class chess player, faced a rather public discussion over the county’s desire to buy a 240-foot strip of land to build a pedestrian path. The county offered Brzezinski $19,000 for an easement, basing the bid on the $1.7 million appraisal.

Pic ...Secretary of State Colin Powell (right) talks with former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger (left) while former Defense Secretary and near neighbour Frank Carlucci (with the shades) looks on. The three statesmen were attending a Full Honors Ceremony Jan. 26, 2001, at the Pentagon.

Indiana Gov. "My Man" Mitch Daniels - the Champion of SMALLER Government, (leaner, cleaner Government) was faced this week with proposals to introduce a 38th State Regulatory Board. On Wednesday he signed Senate Bill 320 which will begin state regulation of massage therapists - with what he claimed was a heavy heart - having previously turned down a similiar proposal from interior designers.

Supporters of the legislation claim this will be a powerful weapon in cleaning up seedy spas and "massage parlours" acting as fronts for prostitution, an argument that appears to have impressed Mitch, once president of Lilly's North American pharmaceutical operations.

He explained that, "The decisive factor in my decision to sign the Bill was testimony during hearings on the bill by law enforcement officials, including the Indiana Association of Chiefs of Police, that certification requirements for massage therapists would be a useful new weapon in their efforts to combat prostitution in their communities."

In a written statement the Governor said, "Therefore, despite some misgivings about the creation of yet another professional regulatory board (raising to 38 the number of such boards and commissions in our state), I have signed (SB 320) into law."

The new law creates a state board of massage therapy. Applicants for certification will be required to complete 500 hours of supervised training, pass a state exam and pay a yet-to-be-determined fee.

So if another retired Eli Lilly CEO sends out for a massage therapist, he will be able to check her credentials throughly - although racial origin probably doesn't feature amongst the necessary qualifications.

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Did the US Military Fudge the 9/11 Timeline?911 Mystery Plane Part IBy Mark H. Gaffney MySpace 5-7-7

The arcana of the alternate 9/11 theories is intricate and vast. This article provides a careful analysis of available evidence that suggests the various stated timings of the "event" at the Pentagon , that are in the public record do not reflect confusion, but a deliberate attempt by the military make a "best fit" to exonerate their apparent (and evident) "stand down".

Briefly it is an attempt to explain this ...

"The 9/11 Commission Report, published in July 2004, acknowledged this problem,[10] then announced a second revision of the timeline. According to this latest story, the FAA wasn't merely tardy, no, it failed completely. In other words, the FAA neglected to notify NORAD that Flights 175, 77 and 93 had been hijacked until after the the planes had crashed."

The author claims this elastic timing was explained (and required) by an overhead AWACS E- 4B plane that was controlling events....

"Based on all of the above, I believe that the US military announced the original 9:43 AM Pentagon crash time to conceal the presence of the E-4B over Washington. A week later, when the military revised the cover-up, they moved the timeline forward by as much as they dared. The 9:38 AM crash time should therefore be understood as a "best fit" that succeeded in masking the presence of the E-4B on the one hand, while minimizing the evidence pointing to a stand-down on the other. "

It is a lengthy, detailed and well reasoned article which to anyone interested in the discovering the correct version of events on 9/11 should read ... and pass on.

It is extraordinary, that in a world of atomic clocks, when your checkout bill is timed and dated to the second based on an international time standard, that the most accurate way of timing the Pentagon event is by a battery powered clock that fell off the wall of the heliport pad office when the explosion ocurred.

Of course that is only one of the very many extraordinary things that happened that day.

The USS Indianapolis played a major role in carrying the first atomic bomb in WWll to bomb Hiroshima (see post here)

Now the City of Indianapolis (The Crossroads of America and home of the SuperBowl Kings - The Colts) will see the first 10-kiloton nuclear bomb detonate on a civilian target in the US tommorrow, in an exercise to conduct training to prepare for a simulated terrorist event involving a nuclear attack.

• Start May 1 -- Officials will begin receiving fake intelligence information about the possibility of an attack. The information will stream in until the "attack."• May 10 -- The date of the fake detonation of a 10-kiloton nuclear bomb in Indianapolis, though the training will take place in Muscatatuck Urban Training Center outside North Vernon.• May 10 and 11 -- About 4,000 troops will stream into Indiana by air and motor convoy after the faux blast. National Guard troops will come from across Indiana and also from Delaware, Illinois, Kentucky, New York and Ohio.

Or at least the simulation of one.

The test is designed to gauge the response of National Guard troops, police, firefighters and Indiana Department of Homeland Security officials.

Marion County (Central Indianapolis) won't notice anything peculiar. The trouble will look real in Jennings County in southeastern Indiana, however.

About 4,000 soldiers and other emergency personnel will stream into the Muscatatuck Urban Training Center outside North Vernon.

The site was chosen because it looks and feels like a city but has no inhabitants to be inconvenienced. It is soon to undergo a $100 million makeover paid for by the Army and will be the premier urban training grounds for the American military.

That "action" will lead to the fake nuclear detonation -- known as NUDET in security jargon -- by terrorists. (This is absolutely nothing to do with nude massages of a non-sexual nature)

"In real life, you'd hope to prevent (the detonation)," understated Michael Kucharek, current operations chief for North American Aerospace Defense Command and the U.S. Northern Command public affairs. But in order to get in the practice, prevention efforts are going to fail. (Are NORAD giving a hand in this ?)

The troops will stream into Indiana on May 10 and 11 by air and motor convoy to try to pick up the pieces after the faux blast. National Guard troops will come from across Indiana and from Delaware, Illinois, Kentucky, New York and Ohio.

Some responders, the experts in nuclear contamination, will come in black SUVs pulling black trailers. Large cargo planes with troops will land in Terre Haute and converge on Jennings County.

If a real 10-kiloton nuclear bomb went off in a large city, the U.S. Government Accountability Office has found, about 450,000 people would have to be evacuated. And not just across the county line, either. In its report, issued in January, the agency estimated the earth would be contaminated for 3,000 square miles around the site.

Eric Dietz, executive director of the Indiana Department of Homeland Security, said that in addition to practicing evacuation techniques on 100 or so "civilians," the emergency response would include search and rescue and medical response.

"We'll have some dog teams, and we'll simulate some people caught under rubble," he said.

Let's hope it all goes to plan .... unlike those simulation exercises on September 11th 2001.

The pic of SS Indianapolis was taken 3 days before she set sail with the first atmomic weapon ever used in war.

Vice President Cheney (the guy who shoots lawyers) leaves Washington agog today as he heads off for a weeklong trip to the Middle East, where he will visit the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, and the USS John C. Stennis in the Gulf. As this is posted he is in the middle of an unannounced visit to Baghdad where he is getting a firsthand briefing on conditions from Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and the new U.S. ambassador , Ryan Crocker. (previously Ambassador in Pakistan - that's him with Condi in the pic)

Cheney will aso meet Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, as well as with Iraq's Kurdish president Jalal Talabani's and theIraqi Sunni and Shiite vice presidents.

This is only his 2nd visit to Iraq, his first was in December 2005. His principal aim is to get the Parliamanet not to have a summer break and get the goddam oil legislation through.

The Wayne Madsen Report(WMR) states that the former CEO of a major corporation and extremely high-level official of the Bush administration - an individual, who is definitely "newsworthy," reportedly engaged the services of Madame Jeane Palfrey's escort firm while he was the CEO and maintained a residence off Chain Bridge Road in the Ballantrae neighborhood in McLean, Virginia, a few blocks from the headquarters of the CIA was Dick Cheney.

WMR claims they have confirmed with extremely knowledgeable CIA and Pentagon sources that the former CEO who is on Deborah Jeane Palfrey's list is Vice President Dick Cheney. Cheney was CEO of Halliburton during the time of his liaisons with the Pamela Martin & Associates escort firm. Palfrey's phone invoices extend back to 1996 and include calls to and from Cheney.

WMR points out that in 2000 Cheney was appointed by Bush to head his Vice President selection committee. The result of which, after gathering detailed personal files on a number of potential candidates, including Bill Frist, George Pataki, John Danforth, Fred Thompson, Chuck Hagel, John Kasich, Chris Cox, Frank Keating, Tom Ridge, Colin Powell, and Jim Gilmore. Cheney ...er ... selected himself.

WMR say White House saw to it that ABC/Disney killed the DC Madam's story before yet another scandal swamped the Bush administration.

The Court have appointed a high powered, ace, blue blood, high profile Defence lawyer for Jeane Palfrey - Preston Burton who does his lawyering at Orrick,s a blue riband 150 year old firm with approximately 980 lawyers in 18 offices worldwide. Mr. Burton represented Monica S. Lewinsky in the investigation of President William J. Clinton by the Office of Independent Counsel and in the impeachment proceedings before the U.S. Senate - and therefore can be expected to understand what sexual intercourse is (and what is not).

Preston Burton had the task of escorting the star witness around town, shuttling between her apartment, the courthouse and Starr's office.

"I served as an unofficial bodyguard," said Burton, a 41-year-old defense attorney and former federal prosecutor. "I got shoved a lot and shoved back. I don't think I'll ever experience anything quite like it again, in terms of being in the center of something like that. . . . Throngs of people pushing and shoving to get a glimpse of her." WAPO 27.7.04

He also represented former CIA intelligence agent Aldrich H. Ames, former FBI Special Agent Robert Hanssen, and former Defense Intelligence Agency analyst Ana Belen Montes in their high-profile espionage prosecutions. But it was the Lewisnky case that must have brought a flush to his youthful cheek....

To avoid the media, Burton and Lewinsky occasionally employed evasive tactics. Instead of pulling into the parking area for her Watergate residence, they entered the hotel, took the elevators to the garage, then switched to another bank of elevators up to reach the condominiums.

"I didn't appreciate being part of something historic. I didn't view it in that way at the time," Burton said. "It was more like we were just working our tails off, going through interminable debriefing sessions with Starr's people and watching people argue about this on TV."

For all the marathon workdays and stresses of being hunted by the media, Burton enjoyed the "Summer of Monica." ***

"We were working on the biggest case in the city, if not the country, and we got a fabulous result for the client," said Burton, who helped arrange Lewinsky's testimony in exchange for immunity from prosecution. "It was some of the most fun I have had or will have practicing law. It was an exhilarating experience."

The government pays a modest fee of $92 per hour, with a maximum of several thousand dollars for the whole trial for such court appointed lawyers. A court might decide that a noteworthy defendant like Palfrey could take a view that a fair trial would require in the circumstances, a high-powered attorney on her team. In "exceptional circumstances," the judge can select a lawyer who doesn't appear on the panel rolls. Which is what he did. Lucky Jeane.

By strange coincidence Mike Rochford, former chief of the Espionage Section of the Counterintelligence Division of FBI, who handled the Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen cases and had never before spoken publicly before about it was at a seminar in UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism called "The CIA: In Fact and Fiction" this last weekend.

Lord Patel is setting up a UK Defence Fund for Jeane Palfrey and calls on fellow ex-clients of herPamela Martin & Associates escort firm's services to contact the office to make a small contribution. Discretion is assured.

****

Poet Roger McGough published a book of a single poem called "Summer with Monika" in 1965 (?) which had nothing to do with Monic L.

The first 2 lines were

I spent summer with MonikaMonika spent the summer with me

Another of the Lord Patel collection lost. stolen or lent and never returned.

They will have to call by a thrid time to catch this update from...Wayne Madsen ReportMay 10, 2007 -- WMR has received a third well-placed confirmation that Vice President Dick Cheney, while CEO of Halliburton, was a client of the escort service of DC Madam, Deborah Jeane Palfrey. In addition, one of Cheney's closest military advisers and friends was also a client of the DC Madam's Pamela Martin & Associates escort service. Cheney used the escort service while he was a part time resident of the posh Ballantrae section of McLean, Virginia.

See Lord Patel's report (10/5/07) on the housing of senior Bush Administration officials / military and Bush family friends in Mclean, Fairfax County here.

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Rescue workers are reported to have recovered bodies after a Kenya Airways plane crashed in densely forested swampland near Mbanga Pongo, around 20 km from Douala airport. The Boeing 737 Flight KQ 507, crashed early on Saturday minutes after leaving Douala for Nairobi in torrential rain. All 114 people on board are reported killed.

"It's devastating. I found one or two whole bodies at the start, but since then everything is in pieces," said Captain Francis Ekosso of Cameroon's fire department, who was in charge of the rescue operation.

In a round crater gouged out of the bush, reports tell of victims' remains lay amid clothes, personal belongings and plane debris in a hole filled with muddy water. Apart from the plane's nose jammed down into the mud, there was little left of the rest of the aircraft bar fragments not much bigger than a car door. One of the two flight recorders has already been found,

How lucky the plane and passengers didn't entirely disappear like the one that crashed in Shanksville on 11th September 2001..... you know .. like they usually do.

Incidentally A Washington-based nonprofit group, The National Park Foundation, which already handles funds for the campaign will take over efforts to raise funds for a permanent memorial for Flight 93 victims after a 2 year campaign led by a consulting firm, Dallas-based Ketchum Inc., Press relations Agency fell short of its goal.

A coalition of groups, including Families of Flight 93, hired Ketchum two years ago to raise $30 million for the memorial, but the campaign had netted only $10.4 million as of April 12. Oddly a search of the Ketchumwebsite produces no results for "Flight 93" or "Shanksville" (They do howevr in their case studies for companies like Levi Strauss, Kodak and P & G's Fairy Liquid, have a fascinating review of "US Potato Board: Reinventing the Potato" ... The mayors in Dallas and San Francisco declared the first day of the promotion "Take a Potato to Work! Day" .

Construction of the $58 million memorial is tentatively scheduled to begin in late 2008 or early 2009. A ribbon-cutting ceremony has been planned for the 10-year anniversary of the attacks.

The People's Democracy was formed in the October of 1968 by students from Queens's University Belfast - to some extent it grew from the Events of May in Paris earlier that year - and its historian, Paul Arthur quotes Daniel Cohn Bendit (Danny the Red)

"In its first few months of existence it was to reflect the militance of the European student movement - direct action, sit-ins, sit-downs, pickets, marches, spontaneity. Like its French counterparts'... the emphasis was on spontaneity: "Bourgeons d'abord; nous ferons la theorie du mouvement apres" was how Daniel Cohn-Bendit described it (roughly translated it means "let's give things a shove first: we'll compose the theory of the movement afterwards")."

It was decided to go ahead with a 4 day march from Belfast to Derry, starting on 1 January. The march would be the acid test of the government's intentions. Either the government would face up to the extreme right of its own Unionist Party and protect the march from the 'harassing and hindering' immediately threatened by Major Bunting, or it would be exposed as impotent in the face of sectarian thuggery, and Westminster would be forced to intervene, re-opening the whole Irish question for the first time in 50 years. The march was loosely modelled on the Selma-Montgomery march in Alabama in 1966, which, including journalists and photogrpahers had exposed the racist thuggery of America's deep South and eventually helped to force the US government into major reforms.

A leaflet had been produced at the very first march in October Belfast in which 3,000 people eventually marched (including many academics), which made these brief demands

One man, one voteFair boundariesHouses on NeedJobs on MeritFree SpeechRepeal of the Special Powers Act.

The principal demand had been for 'One Family, One House - and that a decent house - and all houses allocated by a fair points system.'

Egged on, it is said by Harold Wilson, the Northern Irish Prime Minister, a hard headed, farmer, realist and reformer Capt O'Neill did not attempt to evade his responsibilities. On November 22 he introduced his 'reform package.' He promised an Ombudsman, the introduction of a points system in the allocation of houses, the reform of local government elections, the repeal of parts of the Special Powers Act and the suspension of Derry Corporation.

Only about forty to eighty people , mainly young students, set out from Belfast on January 1 under the twin banners of 'Civil Rights' and 'Anti-Poverty.' It received the active assistance of the Londonderry branch of the NILP and the Radical Socialist Alliance (a small extreme left-wing splinter group from Derry). During the march itself, an Anarchist and a Republican banner were hoisted, and Republicans and NICRA supporters housed and fed the marchers along the route.

Loyalists viewed the People's Democracy and the march as another attempt to undermine the Unionist government of Northern Ireland. A number of leading Loyalists, including Ronald Bunting and Ian Paisley, had indicated in advance of the march that they would be calling on 'the Loyal citizens of Ulster' to 'harrass and harry' the four-day march.

On each day of the march groups of Loyalists confronted, jostled, and physically attacked those taking part in the march. At no time did the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), who were accompanying the march, make any effort to prevent these attacks.

At Burntollet bridge, across the shallow River Faughan , about six miles outside Derry was the scene of a carefully staged ambush by about 400 Protestant extremists. Armed with bricks and nailed cudgels and wearing white armbands as a means of identification, they laid into the defenceless marchers, many of whom were badly injured and whose only escape route was a swollen and freezing river. The remnant of the march fled on towards Derry, convinced that the RUC had offered little or no protection. This was the first blood spilt in what has become an unending conflict. (For a full description )

The way in which the police mishandled the People's Democracy March confirmed the opinion of many Catholics (if it was needed) that the RUC could not be trusted to provide impartial policing in Northern Ireland. The events also further alienated many in the Catholic population from the Northern Ireland state. The march also marked the point where concerns about civil rights were beginning to give way to questions related to national identity and the constitutional position of Northern Ireland.

Lord Patel once had a 50/60 page pamphlet "The Battle of Burntollet Bridge" long since lost, or finally lent, never to return, in which photographs showed the active and central role of Ian Paisley with his supporters, many of them off duty 'B' Specials from the RUC.

Oswald Mosley, a discredited man and politician but a sensible one, wrote a letter to the Times suggested that the main greivance about housing should be approached as a military operation, house should be built, and their allocation be seen to be fair and the legitimate greivances of the working class addressed - reflecting the points in the original People's Democracy leaflet quoted above.

Northern Ireland at the time was administered as a part of the Home Office and little time was spent on it in the House of Commons, Reginald Maudling, the Home Secretary, was at the time fraudulently filling his bank account with a "little pot of gold" from Poulson, the crooked and unqualified architect along with Dan Smith the Labour spiv from Newcastle.

There was no enthusiasm in Westminster to deal with the bone headed Unionists, who followed O'Neill who had lost his seat to Paisley .

The rest is history.

Today, Paisley who could be seen waving his hefty Blackthorn stick at Burntollet is triumphant as the First Minister and has collected £1Bn. (at least) from Westminster as a peace offering.

It is a commonplace to say that if the advice of Oswald Mosley had been taken on board, if the grievances of the working classes had been addressed, the cost would have been negligible and decades of violence and death would never have happened.

PS : It is a curious fact that In 1970 the youthful (he was 21) Ronnie Flanagan (who cannot remember anything about what the Special Branch may have done) joined the RUC while still at Queen's University where he was studying physics. On the advice of the RUC he switched his degree to psychology and was initially stationed at Queen St RUC barracks during university vacations. In 1995 during an RTE interview, he denied the interviewer's suggestion (Sean O'Meoloid, Policing in Northern Ireland, 9.3.1995) that there had been 'collusion' between the RUC and loyalist attackers at Burntollet Bridge during the January 1969 People's Democracy march. Ho.Ho.Ho. ...as if...

The picture shows how the marchers were forced into the River Faughan (this was January) by stick wielding assailants and the white arm bands amongst them worn by the 'B' Specials.

It seems to be based on documents related to the US$24 Billion "Deepwater" CoastGuard / Homeland Security contractwith Lockheed martin /Northrop Grumman - this freely available 10 page Congressional public document is a good place to start. (Especially if you pay taxes in the USA - but not if you have a weak heart)

Germany's President Horst Köhler unexpectedly announced today that he has refused clemency to the convicted RAF terrorists Christian Klar and Birgit Hogefeld.

Klar,now 54, has been in prison for 24 years and is 2 years away from being eligible for parole and was turned down by Köhler's predecesor Johannes Rau as part of his review he met Klar and as a consequence was met with furious critcism by conservative politicians.

In February this year Klar sent a provocative anti-capitalist statement to a conference of far-left groups which was picked up by a demonstration that he showed no remorse, nor had he changed his radical political views.

Hogefeld received a life sentence in 1996 for the murder of an American soldier and a bomb attack on a United States airbase in 1985. She will not be eligible for parole until 2011 at the earliest.

The Christian Social Union, the conservative Bavarian sister party to German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, attacked Köhler over the weekend, saying they would not support him if he were to stand again for president in 2009, should he grant Klar clemency.

This controversy follows the release by Klar in March this year of RAF member Brigitte Mohnhaupt before her sentence expired.(See post by Lord Patel 12/2/07)

Reuters reports that Ukraine Emergencies ministry spokesman Oleksander Trigubblast occurred at 1125 GMT n today and destroyed a 30 meter section of a main gas trunk pipeline to Europe, near the village of Luka in the Ukraine south of Kiev. There are no reports of any injuries.

The pipeline takes gas from Urengoi in Russia via Pomary to Uzhgorod on the border with Slovakia (Blue line in map above - larger more detailed map here) .

Pipeline owners Gazprom said flows of gas had not been affected as a by pass had swiftly been put in place. and a spokesman said,"There has been no reduction in gas supplies to European customers,"

Ukrainian state energy firm Naftogaz representative Yuri Korolchuk said by telephone. "Volumes due to pass through the damaged section are being redirected through the Soyuz pipeline."

Martin Chalupsky, of the main Czech gas importer and supplier RWE Transgas said there no disruptions but said the company would as a precaution increase supplies through a northern route bringing Norwegian gas through Germany as of Saturday.

He said there was enough gas in storage facilities following a mild winter to cover "several months" of domestic consumption.

The Slovak natural gas monopoly SPP, which manages the Slovak section of the pipeline transporting around 20 percent of gas consumed in the European Union, said it did not register any problems with gas supplies.

The ending of the "Crevice" trial removed reporting instructions in the case of Kazi Nurur Rahman (AKA Abdul Haleem according to Mohammed Babar) ) 29, said to be a plumber, who was arrested on November 29th 2005 and charged with "attempting to possess property intending it should be used for the purpose of terrorism" (section 17 of the Terrorism Act 2000,) and pleaded guilty - he was sentenced to 9 years imprisonment.

It was because Rhaman knew some of the "Crevice" trial defendents and had visited training camps in Pakistan, that details of his arrest and trial (in May 2006) had been suppressed. The star Police "supergrass" Mohammed Babar, also told the Old Bailey that Rahman was the head of a terrorist cell in east London.

Apparently Rahman first became known to the police in 1995 when he was arrested and charged in connection with the death of Ayotunde Obanubi, a Nigerian student (and it is said a Christian) who was stabbed to death outside Newham College in east London - said to be the result of tensions between Muslim and non-Muslim students. It was incidentally at this college that our old friend MI 5 contact and refugee from the law Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed who founded both the UK Hizb branch and Luton based Al Muhajiroun frequently gave lectures.

Apparently about 15 students armed with knives, machetes and hammers attacked Obanubi who was struck on the head with a hammer, and a knife pierced his heart. He died on the spot. His death was the first known instance of Muslim fanatics killing someone on British soil for "religious" reasons. The prosecutor in the case was the very interesting David "Murky" Waters QC (of which , much, much more here), now senior treasury counsel. Charges were withdrawn in the case of Rahman.

The court was told that in 2001 Rahman had given a shadowy interview to ITN reporter John Gilbert, in which he admitted recruiting hundreds of British Muslims to fight with the Taleban.

He told John Gilbert: "I can't wait for the day I meet British soldiers on the battlefield to see them run. I am happy to kill them."

It appears that after Kayham and the others were arrested having purchased some ammonium nitrate , Rahman was approached by 2 undercover police officers .One named as "Mohamed" , but not otherwise identified , he claimed he could supply Rahman with guns, together with silencers and 3,000 rounds of ammunition. Rahman is said to have offered to pay £1,000 per gun.

This direct aproach was the culmination of several (up to 8 meetings) Rahman had starting with an undercover MI5 agent called "Salim" on July 20, 2005 (2 weeks after 7/7 and the day before 21/7) . The meeting had concerned acquiring counterfeit banknotes, but Rahman had apparently told "Salim" that he wanted to buy a Kalashnikov rifle, guns and a silencer. There followed seven further meetings with undercover agent(s ?). On the second meeting, Rahman had asked for "hand grenades and rocket propelled grenades”, making hand gestures to describe the weapons. He spoke of two types of launchers. He said he would pay cash for the weapons and a provisional price of £1,000 (US$1,987) per machine gun was agreed.

Rahman was quoted a price of around £70,000 a Sam-7 missile and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) a sum which Rahman is said to have described as "no problem". Although no eveidence of him having had such funds or access to them was provided in court.

On 29th November 2005 Rahman met "Mohamed" at South Mimms services on the M25 and handed over some money it was at this stage that another undercover officer named as 'Iqbal', arrived and they drove to a cul-de-sac in nearby Welham Green, Hertfordshire.

There "Iqbal "showed a suitcase containing the guns, wrapped in black plastic bags inside a van to Rahman . Rahman told "Iqbal" to put the suitcase in the back of his vehicle and they would leave that location and find a better, safer place for the exchange.

"Iqbal" refused to do this. Rahman also stated that he wanted to see the ammunition, which had not been brought to the location for safety reasons.

"Iqbal" told him the ammunition was nearby. Rahman was unhappy and said it looked like a 'sting'. "Iqbal" returned to his vehicle and telephoned "Mohamed" and it was at this point that armed officers intervened and Rahman was arrested."

When Rahman's home in Manor Park, east London was searched police found literature relating to the 9/11 "martyrs" and details of guerrilla warfare and how to execute prisoners there was also a scanner which could pick up police radio messages, literature on guerilla warfare, and details of an electricity sub-station ("that could have caused significant black-outs across London if it were disabled.- D Torygraph) . Quite why the Scotsman on December 6th 2005 repeated an allegation ,"that he had a stash of weapons, including three Uzi sub-machineguns, 3,000 rounds of ammunition, three silencers and nine magazines." it is not possible to say. It will certainly not have been information supplied by the Metropilitan Police that is certain.

David Farrell, QC, prosecuting, said: "The terrorist purpose, which the defendant accepts by his plea but does not define, was to cause death, injury and damage for the religious and political purposes of al-Qaeda.

When initially interviewed by the Police Rahman claimed he was working for MI5, who had recruited him 10 years earlier (remember it was 1995 when he was charged with the Newham student murder and charges were withdrawn) , but then admitted that this was not true.. and this has nothing to do with being offered a lesser plea and sentence to those the "Crevice" defendents rceived.

Peter Clarke, the Sphincter of the Yard told reporters that “This is another example of where we have been able to take pre-emptive action to protect the public from the threat of terrorism. Whenever the evidence allows us to take such action, we will do so.”

When "pre-emptive" action means offering lethal weaponry for sale to people with allegedly terrorist connections, there are some members of the public who start to question the tactics whereby prosecutions are engineered.

Legal Note

Entrapment occurs when an agent of the state causes someone to commit an offence so that the latter should be prosecuted. Entrapment is not a substantive defence in English law.

The Title is taken from Brendan Behan's "The Hostage" in which the IRA take a british soldier prisoner in a brothel. Amidst a comic drama and love story, tyranny masquerades as liberty and common humanity is smashed by political expediency and the display of the arbitrary power of state authority as the soldier dies in hail of police bullets.

Comcar provides chauffeured services to MPs and senators, in Canberra and elsewhere around Australia, which is paid out of Government funds.

The unfortunately named Ms Kelly Hoare, 43, a married mother of two and Labor Party MP for the NSW Hunter Valley seat of Charlton (the coal exporting capital of Australia) , she is deputy caucus chairman and chairs the Labor Party womens committee.

She was recently ferried home by an Australian Government driver employed by Comcar.

When they stopped at her house, the driver found it necessary to refuse the invitation to "Come inside and fuck me" .... which judging by the picture he was fully entitled to, whatever the terms of his employment contract.

As a result of a complaint the frightened driver lodged with his employers, she now finds her self de-selected from the seat she has won 3 times, by the Party and ambitious (and youthful) ACTU boss Greg Combet installed as a the forthcoming candidate in her place. She is said to be receiving "counselling" , there is no news if the driver is receiving any ..

...... but then Oz politics is a rough old game. Union boss (ETU) Dean Mighell recently calledPrime Minister Howard "an anti-union bastard of the last generation and a skidmark on the bedsheet of Australian politics".

Sunday, May 06, 2007

Lord Patel has , since last August been describing The Home Secretary John Reid - (as PM in waiting - Our Saviour and our Strength).

Reid has now made a play by announcing his resignation as Minister at the Home Office at the end of June this year.

Faced with a curious and stately gavotte at the top of the New (?) Labour Party there is evidently an elaborate jockeying for position which is prompted by several factors.....

1. The realisation that Gordon Brown is death for the party as Leader and will make them unelectable as a Government. It would of course be dreadful if he suffered a sudden and dramatic loss of eyesight in his one remaining good eye.

2. The results of PC Plod in unmasking the authors of the "Cash for Coronets Caper" ... the CPS and the Attorney General.

3. That Tony Blair may well announce his resignation on Thursday this week - but only as Party Leader. Again health worries might dramatically cut short a brilliant career.

4. There are no major terrist scares / events / street theatre in the UK or worldwide - which would introduce an uncertainty factor of great magnitude.

5. The Milibandwagon ... but he can wait.

Nothing is certain in this world of greasy poles, but Lord Patel's modest fiver is still on John Reid to lead and Hain to deputise. Apparently Betfair has seen a dramatic shortening of odds on the Gorbals Bruiser.

One thing is certain, there is nothing in the announced resignation which is designed to help Mr Brown and everything to assist John Reid.

The Organised Crime Task Force report today that the largest ever haul of cannabis (Street value £mn's) has been seized at premises in Newtownards, Northern Ireland. Two men have been arrested.

UPDATE 11th October

On the 11th of October the quantity seized was reported to be 4 tonnes in weight, with street value of £10 Mn. (Euros 14.5 Mn). Local Strangford MP Iris Robinson congratulated those who had succeeded in keeping the huge haul off the streets. “It is not yet clear who was responsible for this criminal act or whether there was paramilitary involvement ..." she said at the time.

Just in advance of Dr Paisley and Dr McGuiness sitting down and smoking the odd Pipe of Peace, one might ask where this mighty haul - the largest ever seized in these islands has gone.... has anyone been arrested ? Has anyone been charged ... indeed as Iris Robinson asked .."was there any paramilitary involvement ...?"

4 Tons, that's ..say ... 6 times the amount of Ammonium Nitrate fertiliser Plod so very carefully kept an eye on in the Crevice case. Let's hope they have been keeping as close an eye on that haul of cannabis....but then of course the fertiliser for an inert substance ... let's hope nobody has tried that with the Newtonards Cannabis Mountain.

Raymond Whitaker. Independent today 6/5/07147 soldiers dead in Iraq, 54 in Afghanistan - the human cost of 'humanitarian intervention' The PM's stand over the Balkans earned him credit, but he soon squandered it.

"Dame Pauline Neville-Jones, former political director of the Foreign Office and head of the Joint Intelligence Committee, recently told the Policy Exchange in London that Britain would have to persevere in Afghanistan, "which has become a test of our capacity and Nato's". But in the future, she added, "I don't think there will be a great appetite for humanitarian intervention."

Presumably the "The PM's stand over the Balkans", involved the bombing of civilians with 2,000 HE bombs, deliberate targeting of TV stations and their staff, killing journalists etc.,Certainly it was a stand that Lady Dame Pauline Neville Jones was able to benfit from commercally as a "private" citizen.

Many will remember and few forget how Lord Hurd and Lady Dame Jane Pauline Neville Jones joined NatWest Markets, investment arm of the National Westminster Bank on fat salaries., on a salary of £250,000 a year. In Belgrade in 1996 they had a memorable breakfast with Slobodan Milosevic, then head of a cash strapped and beleaguered government and Serbian workers quieing up for unpaid wages.

NatWest obliged by helping Slobodan Milosevic sell off the post and telephone system, PTT, and obtained a contract to advise on debt management and then tried the same trick on the Serbian electricity industry (the bits that suvived NATO bombing). The Italians and Greeks cleaned up on the telecomms deal. But NatWest did well thank you out of supplying advice from the folks you stitched up the Dayton accords, and so did Lord Hurd and Dame Pauline.

Of course the , "The PM's stand over the Balkans earned him credit" ... nice little earner for the Fan club as well.